Texans will not tolerate criminals who exploit our children, said Attorney General Abbott. The Cyber Crimes Unit will continue its aggressive crackdown on sexual predators and child pornographers. We are grateful to U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton and the Austin Police Department for their assistance with this case.

Cyber Crimes Unit investigators and officers with the Austin Police Department arrested Glass at his Austin residence. The arrest came after a federal grand jury issued a one-count indictment against Glass for receiving child pornography. Receipt of child pornography is punishable by up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

ABIA referred the case to the Cyber Crimes Unit, which investigated Glass’s computers.

The case is part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a national initiative announced by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales earlier this year. PSC encourages the use of multi-jurisdictional task forces to investigate and prosecute the sexual exploitation of children over the Internet. In addition to tough law enforcement, PSC encourages community-wide campaigns to assist victims and to educate parents, other adults, and children about Internet safety. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

In Texas, investigative assistance in these matters is provided by the Texas Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC). In May 2006, Attorney General Abbott’s Cyber Crimes Unit was awarded a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention to establish an ICAC Task Force. The Texas Attorney General’s ICAC Task Force is one of almost 50 federally funded task forces across the country dedicated to this project.

Attorney General Abbott has earned a national reputation for aggressively arresting and prosecuting child predators. In 2003, he launched the Cyber Crimes Unit, which targets online predators by assuming the identities of young teenagers in Internet chat rooms, and the Fugitive Unit, which locates convicted child sex offenders who have violated the terms of their parole and could be stalking children. Attorney General Abbott’s initiative has netted more than 500 arrests of such offenders. His office also has obtained convictions against 60 men on child pornography charges.

For more information, contact the Office of the Attorney General at (800) 252-8011 or visit the Attorney General's Web site at www.texasattorneygeneral.gov.